New Times / Art

The following article was posted on May 8th, 2013, in the New Times - Volume 27, Issue 41 [ Submit a Story ]

The following articles were printed from New Times [newtimesslo.com] - Volume 27, Issue 41

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Artifacts

It's a puzzle! It's a painting!

BY ANNA WELTNER

Local artist and art supply retailer Jeff Claassen loves to make enormous paintings. Problem is, large-scale artwork doesn’t move very fast. For the past few years, Claassen—known for his bright characters and street-art-inspired style—has simply resigned himself to working smaller. But that’s all about to change, thanks to a playful new project: the puzzle painting!

The puzzle painting is a combination of many smaller paintings, which can be assembled into one large-scale work. Each piece of the puzzle will be sold separately, Claassen explains on the project’s Kickstarter page:

“In addition to not having to take out a loan to buy artwork, collectors of ‘The Puzzle Painting’ determine how big this painting gets because with each panel purchased the painting gets that much bigger, which is super cool. But what I think is even cooler than that is the fact that this painting will probably never be seen or displayed as a whole. It will only exist in the photos I take of it, while the actual pieces of the painting will be scattered all over the world hanging in living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, etc. All of you Puzzle Painting backers will share a part of something bigger and therefore be connected to each other in this weird way.”

Individual pieces will range from 4-by-4 inches to 16-by-16 inches, and can be collected in groups or on their own. Kickstarter backers who pledge $35 get their own 4-by-4-inch painting, with bigger pieces of the puzzle offered for greater amounts. As of this writing, the project had already met its $4,000 goal, but you can still secure your piece of the puzzle before the deadline of May 24.

So what will the final painting look like?

“I don’t know! But that’s the fun part,” Claassen writes. “I don’t work from sketches and prefer to paint very spontaneously. That’s just my style and it’s been working so far. … The Puzzle Painting will be executed in my typical style full of characters (faces, fish, owls, octopi, etc.), whimsical lines, and will probably have a very colorful background.”